In the Horizon Pleiades case, the Council of State was confronted with an interesting question: if a public authority organises a procedure to select its partner for a PPP company, which will perform works or services which would normally be covered by the Procurement Directives, does the selection procedure have to comply with the rules laid down in the Procurement Directives or can a “light” selection procedure be used? In its ruling, dated 19 June 2009, the Council of Stat
How can the government’s attitude and approach to internet issues best be described? The Canadian government recognises that Canada is a small country in a global economy and it pursues a general policy to ensure that Canada is ‘connected’ ...
The quality of public services in Indonesia is expected to improve after the issuance of Law No. 25 of 2009 dated 18 July 2009 regarding Public Services (“PS Law”) ...
Lenders who take legal charges over real property usually require their interest to be 'noted' on the insurance policy covering the property. However, this may not give them the protection they require, especially in the current economic climate. It is quite appropriate that lenders want to be certain that insurance arrangements covering a property used as security are satisfactory ...
In two recent cases (Coditel and Stadtreinigung Hamburg), the ECJ dealt with the so-called “in-house exemption” in procurement matters ...
What are the limits on national public procurement law to prevent collusion between tenderers in award procedures? This was the question the ECJ dealt with in its recent Assitur judgment (C-538/07).The facts of the Assitur case were as follows. Three tenderers passed the qualitative selection phase and were admitted to the final procedure ...
ON MAY 14, 2009, MADAM JUSTICE MARIE-FRANCE BICH OF THE COURT OF APPEAL, PUT AN END TO A CONTROVERSY IN THE CASE LAW ON THE INTERPRETATION BY ARTICLE 216 C.C.P. CONCERNING THE PROCEDURAL MEANS AVAILABLE TO THE INSURER TO PROTECT ITS SUBROGATION RIGHTS ...
The intention of this brief note is to present an analysis of internal crises within law firms and the way of avoiding them. We define a crisis as an unexpected and grave difficulty or danger (“a time of intense difficulty or danger”). As a matter of fact the greek origin of crisis (“krisis”) meant “decision” (from “krinein” – decide) ...
The long-awaited and controversial Equality Bill (the Bill) has been published and laid before Parliament. Public consultations are scheduled on several of the measures outlined in this very significant piece of legislation, though it is not expected to come into force until the end of next year. With a General Election likely in June 2010, it remains to be seen how quickly the Bill will progress and how much of it will survive ...
The establishment and operation of many Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) involves cooperation amongst industry participants, including those who may be competitors in other aspects of their businesses. It is very important that participants in CRCs remember that the prohibitions against anti-competitive conduct in the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA) will apply to the CRC collaboration ...
On April 20, 2009, the Court of Appeal issued its judgment in three related cases(1) concerning a defect in a fireplace that caused a fire resulting in the partial loss of the building owned by Alpha’s insureds. Alpha sued the immediate seller to its insureds, Basque, as well as the prior owners, Caron and Pellerin, under the rules governing the warranty against latent defects ...
Insurers have lodged a Judicial Review against The Damages (Asbestos-related conditions) Scotland Act. The Act, which was passed on 17 April 2009, made compensation available for the victims of pleural plaques in Scotland. The insurers are bringing the action in an attempt to avoid having to pay compensation for this condition ...
Indonesia has been described as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2008, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index stated that Indonesia ranked 130th least transparent out of 180 countries. However, the continued existence of the Corruption Court in Indonesia which has tried many corruption cases and is trying to improve Indonesia’s anti corruption activities, is now under threat ...
Commission adopts temporary State aid 'credit crunch' framework The European Commission has adopted a temporary state aid framework, designed to help tackle the spiralling negative effects of the 'credit crunch' on the real economy. Under the framework, Member States can - after notifying the Commission - put into effect a range of aid schemes aimed at helping otherwise sound companies that are finding it difficult to access funding ...
On 10 November 2008, BAPEPAM-LK issued Regulation X.E.1 concerning the obligation of securities companies to submit periodic reports. This Regulation X.E.1 replaces a regulation issued in 2006 and is basically intended to improve the provisions of the previous regulation, especially on the procedures for submission ...
Decree of the Minister of Finance No. 424/KMK.06/2003 (as amended) which contains the guidelines on the financial condition of insurance and reassurance companies has been further amended by Regulation of the Ministry of Finance No. 158/PMK.010/2008 ...
In August 2009, the Court of Appeal issued a judgment(1) in which it ruled on the foll owing interesting practical issues relating to liability insurance:1) what is the appropriate procedural vehicle for a liability insurer to exercise recourse against another insurer in situations where there is overlapping insurance?2) does the exception respecting members of the household of the insured (article 2474 C.C.Q ...
Family Intervention Tenancies (FITs) are a new type of tenancy to be introduced by Sections 297-298 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. They will be another tool for registered providers (the new term for both Registered Social Landlords and local authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour ...
Today when financial experts are busy in measuring the depth of present financial turmoil, layman is cursing Governments and experts are blaming sub-prime mortgage payment defaulters but no-body in the economic fraternity could appreciate that it was a policy failure. Moreover, no one in the financial world could imagine the enormous size of the trouble that lending on sub-prime would bring the world’s biggest financial catastrophe of the century ...
Following consultation with national competition authorities and the public, the European Commission has published enforcement priorities guidelines, which it will follow when applying Article 82 to exclusionary conduct by dominant companies. Throughout the guidelines, the Commission reiterates that Article 82 should protect competition and consumers – rather than individual competitors (an approach previously advocated by Commissioner Kroes) ...
On 16 September 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a preliminary ruling in joined cases C-468/06 - C-478/06 specifying that a refusal by a pharmaceutical undertaking that holds a dominant position on a relevant pharmaceutical market to supply wholesalers with a view to impeding parallel export of such wholesalers from one Member State to other Member States constitutes an abuse of a dominant market position under Article 82 of the EC Treaty ...
In May 2008 the government of the Republic of Indonesia issued Government Regulation No. 39 of 2008 regarding the Second Amendment to Government Regulation No. 73 of 1992 regarding Insurance-Related Business Activities (Usaha Perasuransian) in order to anticipate the developing national insurance-related industries, including, among other things, insurance companies (perusahaan asuransi) ...
As national governments have taken increasingly drastic steps to shore up their banking systems so the Commission has been working overtime dealing with the State aid fallout. Many of the measures taken by Member States could distort competition - a serious worry in the current volatile climate. Against this backdrop, the Commission has been keen to stress that it wants to work with Member States to ensure financial stability ...
